Then there’s the hours spent ‘playing out’ at my best friend’s estate, the trips to the park on my own when I was old enough and that special Jersey privilege of being down the beach within just a few minutes of finishing school or work.
None of these memories is of doing things inside, and there are few, save for my childhood obsession with a particular 1980s cake-making video, that involve the TV, computers or any kind of screen/technology.
And that’s why health experts are this week calling for roads to be closed regularly to allow children to play in the street after pilot schemes increased youngsters’ activity five-fold.
More than 500 communities have signed up to the ‘Playing Out’ initiative, which works with local councils to temporarily pedestrianise roads for an hour or two each week so that children can play safely.
Research by the University of Bristol found that those who took part in the scheme had a greater sense of community, overall happiness, and they said that their areas were more friendly and safer.
One woman, according to the research, even claimed it had helped her to overcome postnatal depression.
I read about this scheme while on the ferry returning, rather fittingly, from four days in the great outdoors with my family where there was little phone signal, let alone internet, a lot of mud and thousands of other families all doing the same.
We were at Camp Bestival, a festival aimed at families, which took place in the beautiful setting of Lulworth Castle in Dorset.
And we – my husband and I and our two-year-old son, Archie – had a blast.
Not only did we go from having a toddler who would get concerned that there was a speck of dirt on his shoe to one who rolled around in the mud dressed in a tiger onesie, splashed in muddy puddles with the best of them and scrambled up trees, we also saw him grow mentally before our very eyes.
He learnt new words and concepts by the hour, gained confidence, tried new foods, made friends, unleashed a daredevil side we didn’t think he had, and started to appreciate how unique people can be.
He walked, ran, jumped and danced for hours on end, went on his first helter skelter and ferris wheel, learned all about diabolos and other circus skills, got his first celebrity crush (on the X Factor’s Louisa Johnson), experienced the magic of meeting some of his favourite TV characters, and developed his imagination literally overnight.
We as parents, in turn, learned to relax a bit more, that he won’t break if he gets a little bit muddy and wet or if we don’t stick religiously to normal mealtimes or food.
There were babies being weaned while sat in their pushchairs in the middle of quite possibly the muddiest field I’ve ever seen, kids dancing naked in the rain alongside those kitted out in full waterproofs, wellies and hats, and youngsters catching their zzzs here there and everywhere in preparation for yet another night raving it up way past their normal bedtime.
And, do you know what? Apart from the odd obligatory temper tantrum, I did not see an unhappy child throughout the four days, even with all the wind and rain.
In our modern world where it is too easy to stick on the TV, hand the kids an iPad or live life via your iPhone (particularly when the weather is bad) it was refreshing to go back to basics and just enjoy being together ‘playing out’.
Which is exactly why the ‘Playing Out’ initiative is so needed and should be welcomed and embraced by communities.
Because above all, this past week we learned – along with the thousands of other families who attended Camp Bestival – that playing outside is good for the soul, no matter how old you are.
